Karen Davis, chairperson Greater Table View Action Forum
Recently, we got all the residents together to object to the telecommunication base tower at the Dutch Reformed Church in Grey Avenue (“Fury over cell tower”, Tabletalk, Wednesday May 9).
It appears that they, in the same motion, applied for rezoning from SR1 (Single Residential Zoning 1) to CO1 (Community Zoning 1). This would then mean that as a CO1, they would be allowed to erect a base telecoms tower on top of the church without needing consent from the residents or the City it seems.
In other words, although we got the application for the base telecom tower refused, by rezoning to CO1, they can go ahead and put it on top of the roof.
This is obviously untenable and my question is this, are they so desperate for money that they have no concerns for the residents living around their church? Do they think God would approve of these methods as clearly the church believes that He needs a telecom base station to reach His followers?
We have until May 21 to object to this, and we will. In addition, I believe this by-law needs to be amended urgently, as this is why we have rezoning applications being processed constantly to bypass the community as well as council.
